Fixed & a Meme.

Ah ha! So I deleted all my cookies, temporary Internet files, and my history. I logged out of gmail and logged into Blogger fresh instead of allowing it to auto-log me in. Finally Blogger decided I had earned the right to type into the message field. I feel so privileged! LOL

Wish I would have thought to do that over the weekend. I would have been able to post this meme when I wanted to on Friday.

Womens Fiction Book Meme1. Contemporary, Historical, or Paranormal? I use to love historical romances but now I'm more into paranormal. Although, I'm not real big on vampire romances, which is weird because I love vampires. Guess I just like mine mean and scary and staked.

9. Keep, Throw Away or Sell? Most of them I keep. Very few do I trade in. And I never throw books in the garbage (well, if they happen to get soaked in the tub or a basement flood, I might).

10. Read with dustjacket or remove it? For those few hardcovers I do read, I always remove the jacket.

11. Sookie Stackhouse or Anita Blake? I'll have to go with Anita because I don't know who Sookie Stackhouse is or what she writes. Maybe I should check her out..

12. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I prefer chapter breaks.

13. It was a dark and stormy night or Once upon a time? Are we talking children's books here?

14. Crusie or SEP? Crusie.

15. Buy or Borrow? Both! Although, I must admit I have a book buying tendency that could result in our family ending up in the poor house.

16. Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse? Recommendation and browse. I never pay attention to book reviews. I figure my tastes likely are quite different from the reviewer's and I prefer to form my own opinion.

17. Tidy ending or Cliffhanger? Depends. In romance, though, it has to be a tidy HEA ending. I don't get my HEA, don't expect me to buy another of your books.

19. Series or standalone? In romance - standalone. In fantasy or scifi - both work for me.

20. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Hmm. You want a romance title, right? For the Roses by Julie Garwood is pretty good. The Malory series by Johanna Lindsay...this could go on forever so I'll stop there.

What is going on? Blogger won't allow me to type in the message area.

Blogger Hates Me

Hmm..

Seriously...I have nothing of interest to share. No big writing news. No update on the kidlet. No family drama to report (I believe most of that has passed and less painfully than I had imagined).

All in all things are pretty mundane.

Call me boring. I really don't mind. Boring means peaceful and I like peaceful. The most stressful thing I have to deal with right now is taking the kidlet back and forth to the tutor, getting up for Saturday basketball practices, and doing my homework. Oh, and housework. Can't forget that..although, honestly the hubby has been his usual stellar self and helping out tremendously.

Wait. I lie. There is something kind of big going on in the family.

My nephew is scheduled for surgery next Monday. He's about six months old and has an abscessed cyst in a rather delicate area. They've been treating it with antibiotics and such but nothing really seems to be helping. If I understand my sister correctly they were trying to avoid surgery but it's looking like removal is the best option. Poor little guy. I can only imagine how nervous my sister and brother-in-law must be feeling right about now. I was anxious enough when it was my five-year-old having out-patient surgery. I can't imagine going through all that if he had been younger. Prayers and well wishes are welcome.

Okay, I'm off to do some journaling for a scrapbook layout I'm going to piece together a little later (as in February).

Three Stories Pending Acceptance

Today's lunch break brings you the very uninteresting announcement that I managed to turn in three short stories to the University's annual Critical and Creative Writing Conference for consideration. Two of them were written in my last class--Advanced Creative Writing. The other is far older and far less likely to make it past the first round of reading. I figure the judges won't be very receptive to genre pieces.

The Bargain, my one rebelliously submitted genre peice, is told from an elf's point-of-view. If that's not bad enough, she's talking to a dragon through most of the story.

Yeah, they're never going to go for that one! LOL

So why did I submit it? Well, it's probably as well written, perhaps even more so, than the other two. More than that, though, I find the story more compelling than either of the other contemporary pieces I submitted.

I imagine one of the other stories might have a chance, though. They seemed to do pretty well when I had to present them in workshop, especially the second one.

Referrals

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I can babble on about the actual subject of this little update. I wish I were giving you a list of great reading referrals, but that must wait for another day. I'm actually dropping in to let you, my few loyal readers, know what's up with the kiddo.

We're in the process of getting a referral. The first one stunk (should that be stank?). The doctor's office set up an appointment with a therapist..not a psychologist like we were told. The hubby promptly canceled that appointment. Sorry to be a pain, dear scheduler, but we're not settling for second best here. Not when it comes to the kidlet.

I ended up doing a little digging on my own and found the place we want him tested. I figured they would take our insurance because, hello!, we work for them! An evaluation by a highly qualified doctor at one of the most reputable health systems in the States makes me feel much more confident than a 45 minute interview with a therapist I'm not even certain is qualified to diagnosis ADD or ADHD. I know he surely wasn't qualified to diagnosis a learning disability; his staff admitted as much when we called to ask some questions.

So..after verifying insurance won't be an issue and a referral should be a snap, we're waiting on the family doctor to send down the paperwork necessary to get this process underway. No idea yet on how long before they'll be able to schedule the testing, but I do know they do half-day and full-day testing based on what we and our family doctor want checked. This means the hubby and I will need to take a day off work (even a half-day of testing will take all day because of how far we'll need to travel) and the kidlet will have to be pulled out of school.

I must admit I feel somewhat relieved to know he's going to get an honest evaluation. Hopefully we'll discover whatever the problem is and adjustments can be made to help him succeed in the world of academia. That's all we really want.

Busy

Work has been insane this week. Not a surprise when you consider it's the first week of class. Students are scrambling to get into this course or that course, no one can find their classroom, faculty are making some final touches on their syllabi or other handouts, and the phones ring off the hook. Familiar chaos but still chaos.

From the student perspective, I had my first class today and, ooohh, I think I'm gonna like it! I'm still trying to figure out how to do the first assignment, though. Don't want to appear to be a massive overachiever, which you know I am. Still there are appearances to think of. Hmm. What's a girl to do?

Allow my A.D.D. to show through..

On a non-University related note, I got a note from my 3rd grader's teacher today. She thinks we need to discuss the little man's schooling. While she admits he's improving, she's afraid it's just not enough. I wish I could disagree with her. It's much easier to take the frustration out on the school than to admit there could be a problem. She thinks there could be a learning disability behind his slow progress and wants us to consider a child study.

Damn. If it's not one thing lately, it's another.

We meet with her tomorrow. I won't be surprised if we agree to the study. I also won't be surprised if I contact his doctor and ask for some outside resources to get him tested. Two opinions are better than one, right? Right.

Maybe once we have an idea of what the problem is, we can fix it or, at the very least, make adjustments to help him. I really don't know how the school handles kids with "special needs" but I have a real issue with special ed programs. I hate the stigma associated with them. I remember how those kids were treated when I was in school and I can't imagine it's any better these days. Kids are mean.

The Cat's Gone Missing

If you happen to see our Heidi-Cat, please send her home. My husband last remembers seeing her on Christmas morning. She's an outside cat but she scratches at the porch door every morning to get fed and has never disappeared for more than a day or two. We're beginning to fear the worst.

Yes, the picture is over a year old, but it was the best one I have of her!

Back to Real Life

Well, it's the first week back to work after the holidays. Everything I left waiting was still there when I unlocked the door and flipped on the lights. Darn it all! I think the budget pile actually managed to grow. Not to mention the week's worth of mail I found stuffed in my mailbox, most of which I actually had to keep and will require my attention.

There is a silver lining, though. The new marketing representative for my office started work this week. Her name is Tammy. She's very nice and seems to be eager to jump right in. Thank goodness. I hope she fits half as well as I suspect she will.

Oh, and I spent $100 on textbooks this week. I'm taking History of the British Isles to 1600. I'm actually looking forward to it. Yes, I'm a geek. A nerd. I can live with that. I really think I'll find this class helpful when it comes time to get busy on the historical romance I'm writing with my sister because the Black Death should be covered. Not to mention the Celts. Yay! I wonder if we'll get into the Book of Kells? I hope so.

Yep, certifiable book geek.

Did I mention I received my graduation audit over the break? Five classes. That's it. I need five courses at a 300 level or greater and I'll have my Bachelor's. Finally. I think I'll look into a masters program eventually.

The little people are back to school, too. Not to mention twice a week tutoring for the oldest one; he's doing really well, by the way. There's definite improvement. I'm hoping his report card tells the same story. We'll know in a few short weeks.

It's 10:00 o'clock now and that means I have to go to bed. Getting up to go to work sucks. Hate that damn alarm clock.